2l8 
VOYAGE OP THE POTOMAC, 
[February, 
our return to the United States we have made it a point to go 
any distance, and in almost every direction, for the purpose of 
seeing, conversing with, and closely examining the intelligent mas- 
ters, supercargoes, and officers of such American vessels as have 
been in the habit of trading and holding intercourse with the in- 
habitants, both previous and subsequent to our attack on Quallah- 
Battoo, on the sixth of February, eighteen hundred and thirty -two. 
In prosecuting this investigation, the points to which our in- 
quiries have been especially directed are, the general deportment 
of the Malays before the outrage on the Friendship ; the effect 
of that successful act of piracy along the coast, previously to the 
arrival of the Potomac ; and the apparent feelings and deport- 
ment of the same people since the occurrence of that event. 
To all these respectable and intelligent individuals we have 
uniformly propounded the same questions, and have received 
their distinct, separate, and individual replies, without the knowl- 
edge or possibility of concert with each other. These answers 
have afterward been carefully compared; and from more than 
twenty written documents, taken from the mouths of our inform- 
ants, it is scarcely possible to select the least item of discrepance ; 
a very material fact, which goes far to confirm the following views, 
which we now give as the abstract and substance of their united 
testimony. Of the fidehty of our statements they will be able to 
judge. • 
It is agreed that piracy had become a system with many petty 
chiefs on the coast, and particularly at Quallah-Battoo. Three or 
four years previous to the capture of the Friendship, they had 
attempted to cut off, or manifested evident intentions to do so, al- 
most every vessel that had entered their ports. We shall only 
mention a few, out of many cases that might be cited. 
A Salem brig was on the coast with specie, but had not com- 
menced loading : the captain had never traded with the Malays, 
and was a stranger to most of the inhabitants of Quallah-Battoo. 
A proa was fitted out by them, for the express purpose of cap- 
turing his vessel while she lay at anchor ; but he most fortunately 
suspected their designs, and would not permit them to come along- 
side. On their return to Battoo, they made no secret of the ob- 
ject of their unsuccessful expedition; the leader of which has 
lately been executed by the Dutch for piracy. 
